by Julia Sykes
“The police just showed up at my house.” Each word dropped from my tongue as a shard of ice. “They want to ask me questions about some fucking vigilante blog post. Apparently, there’s a detailed account about my recent activities. We need to do damage control.”
Stefano allowed a long moment of silence, stretching the tension between us. “I’ve heard of that blog. How did you end up featured on it? You’re not usually the talkative type.” He said it like an offhand, rueful comment, but I knew him well enough to understand his mind games.
“I wasn’t the one who talked. Isabel Vera posted the information. I’ve sent Sebastián to pick her up. He’ll hold her until you can deal with her.” I made sure to present this aspect of my early efforts at resolution before telling him about Marisol.
His regretful sigh sounded through the phone. “Good. That gives me time to start applying pressure on the right people and placing some strategic bribes. We can make this go away, my friend. I’ll handle it.”
His icy tone very clearly reminded me that I wasn’t his friend. I was his ally, but I’d fucked up. I’d threatened the stability of our business.
Although I’d already braced myself for it, my stomach dropped at his next casual question.
“What was the topic of Isabel’s little exposé?”
“Marisol.” I hissed out my admission through gritted teeth. “She’s with me, at my house. I invited Isabel to come visit her, and they must’ve planned this together as soon as my back was turned.” I hesitated for a beat before pressing on. “Marisol’s been with me for nearly three weeks. Apparently, the blog post provides details.”
Silence.
He let me stew in it, forcing me to languor in the knowledge that my life was on the line.
“You promised Carmen that you’d bring Marisol safely back to her,” he reminded me silkily. “You made an oath to me that you would ensure no one would harm her.
“Don’t bother lying to me about what you’ve been doing with her. If you’ve been keeping Marisol in secret, it’s not difficult to guess why.” He paused again, and I could practically hear him seething. “Carmen will not be happy about this. She will want you to pay. She’ll want to get Marisol away from you immediately.”
“You’ll have to kill me if you want to take her.” I spoke the flat, absolute truth. Traitor or not, I wouldn’t let Marisol go.
Before, I’d wanted her sweetness and tenderness.
Now, I wanted her suffering. I wanted her delicious body that she’d denied me for so long. She’d toyed with me, drawing out my torment.
She would not escape my wrath.
“So, are you going to kill me, or not?” I snapped when Stefano didn’t reply right away.
“No. I’m not going to kill you.” This wasn’t a reassurance; it was a judgment. He didn’t bother to explain his reasoning, no doubt withholding it from me intentionally to keep me on edge. “But I won’t be able to tell Carmen about this. If I did, she wouldn’t stop until Marisol was safely returned to her protection. You are making me lie to my queen.”
It was an unspoken declaration of my debt. One day, he’d call on me to repay him, and he might ask me to do something I didn’t want to do.
I shoved the potential fallout from my mind. At least our conflict had been pushed to a later date. For the foreseeable future, I would have Marisol all to myself. Trapped for my retribution and my pleasure.
The awful truth was that my lost little lamb had always been a venomous snake. She would pay for trying to poison me.
Chapter 21
Marisol
The front door slammed so hard that it sent a shockwave throughout the entire house. A flash of Gehovany kicking down the door to my family home sent a pulse of remembered terror through my body. My stomach flipped, and I pressed myself deeper into the corner, wrapping my arms around my middle as my knees went rubbery. I sank to the floor, trying to make myself as small and invisible as possible.
Boom! A heavy body smashed into the locked bedroom door. I’d barricaded myself in the room that comforted me most—the room where Raúl’s earthy, calming scent was strongest.
I didn’t know what threat had arrived at his gates, but he’d been nearly out of his mind with rage and panic when he’d run off to face it. He’d ordered me to stay inside the house, and I’d protected myself as best I could, following his snarled command.
A second boom of a massive form colliding with the locked door drew a whimper from my chest.
My mother’s dark eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling. The blooming, crimson flower staining her yellow dress.
A feral roar rent the air, punctuated by the door splintering around the hinges.
Although the beastly sound should’ve struck terror in my heart, I recognized Raúl’s fierce shout.
My hands dropped from where they’d covered my face, reaching for my savior.
His rough-hewn features twisted in a savage snarl, and his thick fingers bit into my upper arms as he yanked me to my feet. He crushed me to his chest, but there was nothing tender about his embrace. And icy knife scraped down my spine when I registered the hard flash of light over his opaque jade eyes.
Instinctively, I cringed away from the monster who trapped me in his immensely strong grip. He jerked me closer, wrapping iron bands around my chest. His white teeth flashed, snapping together a mere inch from my lips.
“Wh-what’s happening?” I squeaked. “What’s wrong?”
He snarled in my face, his heated, heavy breaths burning my cheeks. “What’s happening?” he echoed me on a hiss. “You betrayed me!”
“No!” I gasped. “I didn’t. I wouldn’t betray you, Raúl. Please, tell me what’s happening. I don’t understand why you’re—”
“Stop lying!” he bellowed. The fine lines around his eyes drew deep with anguish, and the scar on his lip turned stark white as his mouth twisted in a fearsome scowl. “Do not lie to me.” His voice dropped lower, a seething warning. “You will only make things so much worse for yourself.”
My insides turned to jelly, but I managed to muster up the courage to reach for his face. When he was enraged like this, my tender touch calmed him. This rabid fury was a defensive wall around his true feelings: pain and fear.
Before I could make contact, his fingers flexed into my upper arms, digging into my flesh hard enough to bruise.
“Do not touch me.” He bit out each word. “From now on, I touch you. However and whenever I want. And how I want to touch you right now will have you begging for mercy.” His face lowered, until his forehead nearly rested on mine. “You will suffer, Marisol.”
A shudder wracked my chest.
He’s hurt, I reminded myself. He’s hurt and scared. I can make this better. I can make him better.
Steeling myself, I softened in his grip. I didn’t try to touch him again, but he needed to see that I wasn’t fighting him. I wasn’t trying to get away.
“Before you do whatever you plan to do to me, please tell me what happened.” It was a quiet, meek request. If I was combative, he would retreat further into his ire. I might lose him entirely.
My heart twisted at the thought.
I gathered my courage. I would do whatever it took to erase his pain. He’d done the same for me—protecting me, sheltering me. It broke me to see him like this, and it seemed that I was somehow the cause of his anguish.
His face didn’t shift from its stony rigidity, but he responded on a growl. “You want me to list your crimes before I punish you? Fine. You betrayed me. Again.” He choked on the added word, but he swallowed hard and continued on. “You tried to escape, when you knew the consequences for your defiance. I spared you the first time. The second time, I obviously didn’t handle you as forcefully as I should have. I won’t make the same mistake a third time.”
“I didn’t try to escape!”
His eyes narrowed, so I quickly switched to reason rather than protest. “You saw for yourself. I did what you asked. I stayed in the
house. I even locked myself in. You had to break down the door, remember? I didn’t try to leave.”
“You were trying to keep me out!” he shouted, his tenuous control fraying. “An extra precaution, in case the police weren’t able to arrest me.” A vindictive grin twisted his lips. “You and Isabel underestimated me. You thought you could tell her your story—that I’m your cruel captor—and she’d make sure the cops learned of my crime. You both thought they’d drag me from my home and lock me away, where I could never touch you again. But you didn’t understand how much of a monster I truly am. Even the authorities fear me. They didn’t dare arrest me. And now, you’re the one caged and helpless. I won’t bother pretending otherwise. Not anymore. You’ve always known what I am, and you’ve always hated me for it.”
I closed my eyes against a wash of pain, and hot tears spilled down my cheeks. He wouldn’t believe me if I insisted that I didn’t hate him. He’d heard it before—he’d believed me before—but now, he was too lost to his anguish to allow himself to truly hear me.
If I couldn’t tell him that I didn’t hate him, I would show him. Whatever happened next, whatever he needed from me, I would accept him.
Because I never wanted to leave him. The decision had settled in my heart after my conversation with Isabel yesterday. I was choosing to stay with Raúl.
He always struggled to express himself with words. His language was touch, and I was determined to make him hear me.
I needed him to hear the three words that’d filled my heart to bursting, but I’d been holding them in for far too long: I love you.
Now wasn’t the time to utter my promise aloud. He wouldn’t believe a single word I said, and I couldn’t bear for him to think my declaration of love was a lie. If that thought cut into his mind in this moment of fury and pain, it might scar permanently.
I took a deep breath, knowing that what I was about to say would trigger his next actions. “I did tell Isabel about what’s happened between us, but I only did it to explain that I want to be with you. She was worried about me, and she must’ve decided to tell the police because she thought she was helping me. I didn’t know what she planned to do. I didn’t try to escape, Raúl. I didn’t try to leave you.”
His jade eyes turned as cold as polished stone, and an ominous, icy control encased the fiery rage that’d consumed him.
“You’ve always known I’m not a good man. You’ve always known I’m a monster.”
My heart twisted, but I bit my lip to hold in my protests. The only way for me to make him see the truth was to show him: You’re not a monster. I trust you. I love you.
“But you don’t have the slightest understanding of how evil I really am. Your lies made me weak. I’ve been holding back. I am not kind. I am not gentle. I take what I want, and I have no mercy. No guilt or regret. My only regret now is that I didn’t claim you sooner.”
A hot tear rolled down my cheek, but it wasn’t for me. I cried for him, finally understanding the agonizing extent of his self-loathing. He’d let me see the best of him—the goodness that even he didn’t believe was real.
Whatever had happened with the police showing up at his house just now had led him to think that everything between us had been a lie, including his kindness and his nurturing nature. In his mind, he was rejecting all the wonderful qualities that made up the complicated man I’d come to love.
Unable to help myself, I tried to lean in for a kiss, desperate to comfort him.
He pushed me away with a growl, pressing me against the wall at my back and pinning me with his huge body. Rejecting my offered kiss, he imposed one on me instead. He crushed his lips to mine, subjugating my mouth with brutal force.
There was no gentleness in him, but I could still give myself to him. If he wouldn’t allow me to touch him with tenderness, I would surrender fully, welcoming his claim.
His big hands tore at my clothes, stripping me roughly as he kept me trapped in his merciless kiss. By the time his thick fingers ripped away my panties, leaving me completely bare against his fully clothed form, I was dizzy from lack of oxygen.
The lightheadedness heightened the intoxicating release of being utterly swept up in Raúl’s strength. His will wrapped around me like iron chains, and I yielded to his power over me.
My tight nipples throbbed in time with my aching clit as my entire body came alive under his domineering hands. I rubbed my chest against his, mindlessly seeking stimulation. His muscular thigh wedged between my legs, and I shamelessly rocked my wet pussy against his jeans. The material was almost abrasive on my swollen sex, but the rough edge only fed my desire for his savagery.
He dropped more of his immense weight against me, trapping me too tightly to continue my wanton writhing. My core ached at his denial, and he devoured my soft whimper, ravenous for the sounds of my suffering.
When he finally tore his mouth from mine, I sagged, breathless and drunk on his power over me. Despite the way my body melted, he had me pinned so tightly that I barely moved an inch.
He ground his thigh against my sex, drawing a strangled cry from my chest; equal parts pleasure and pain. My liquid desire wet his jeans, and a cruelly triumphant smile sharpened his stony features.
“You might be a liar, but your body isn’t. All this time, you’ve wanted me every bit as much as I’ve wanted you. But you’ve denied me, tormented me. You strung me along, punishing me for holding you captive.”
Another merciless press of his thigh blocked my protest, drowning it in a harsh shout.
“I’ll teach you what real punishment is. You will suffer and shatter in my hands. And I will force you to love every second of it. You have no power over me. You are mine.”
Yes, I’m yours. I pressed my lips together, barely containing the words. He wasn’t ready to hear them. Not yet.
The icy armor that’d served as a barrier between us had begun to melt. His ruthless assault on my senses continued, but his vicious heat grew stronger with each of my tormented cries. Fierce, verdant green light began to flicker through the hard gleam in his eyes. Raúl was coming back to me slowly, even if it was the most beastly, ruthless version of the man I loved.
I welcomed him with open arms. I accepted all of him. I wanted all of him, even this dark, dangerous part.
Especially this dark, dangerous part. It called to the darkness in me, and for the first time, I didn’t resist their joining. I surrendered on a sigh, not only to him, but to myself. I was done doubting my judgment. I was done denying what was between us. I embraced the most frightening, thrilling parts of myself, just as I embraced his.
Nothing bad could come of it, because Raúl was everything good in my world: my savior, my protector.
I wanted him. I wanted us.
Suddenly, he grabbed my waist and shifted back. Before I could fall, he threw me over his shoulder. He carried me towards the bed; a hungry beast dragging his prize to his lair.
The stomach-drop fear at falling burst into a giddy shout when my back hit the soft mattress. Raúl didn’t seem to share my slightly drunken mental state. His granite face was carved in forbidding lines as he grabbed my wrists and pulled them above my head. He held them there in one hand while his other reached into the nightstand drawer.
Light glinted off silver handcuffs, and my heart squeezed at the hard flash in his eyes. He bared his teeth in defiance as he closed the metal restraints around my wrists, locking me in the debilitating cuffs that the cops had threatened to use on him. He’d feared that they would take him from the safety of his home. He’d feared that they would lock him away, where he’d never be able to touch me again.
“Raúl…” His name hitched in my throat as I felt his pain knifing in my own chest.
His eyes hardened to jade again, and he fixed me with a scowl. He didn’t want my soft concern. He wasn’t ready to accept it.
He pulled away from me, leaving me bound in place with the cuffs looped around one of his unyielding iron bedposts.
Despite m
y aching heart, desire coiled low in my belly as I watched him remove his clothes with sharp, angry jerks of his powerful limbs. When he was fully naked, he towered over me; my angry, dark, wounded god. He tipped his chin back, studying my helpless body at his leisure. Heat flared beneath my flesh, leaving fiery trails of lust beneath his blazing gaze.
By the time his weight settled over me, I was burning up, desperate for his touch. Pain or pleasure, I’d welcome whatever he chose to give me. Every inch of my skin crackled and danced, and I doubted I’d be capable of telling the difference between agony and ecstasy.
The bruising squeeze of his huge hands on my breasts triggered an answering, aching throb between my legs. His fingers closed around my nipples, pinching and tugging on the sensitive buds as his teeth sank into the soft flesh where my neck met my shoulder. Sharp pain bloomed into bliss, becoming transcendent. The endorphins and adrenaline flooding my body rushed through my mind, sending me flying high. He was the only solid thing tethering me to reality: his cruelly possessive hands; his immense strength; his earthy, grounding scent.
I tried to reach for him, not knowing if I wanted to push him away and escape the pain, or if I wanted to pull him closer, urging more of this sweet torment. The unyielding handcuffs clattered against the iron bedpost and bit into my delicate wrists, adding a new ache to the overwhelming assault on my senses.
His corded muscles flexed, pressing into my flesh as he brutally claimed every vulnerable inch of my body. His cock was hard against me, but he didn’t drive into my sex to use me for his own sadistic pleasure. He was handling me mercilessly, making me suffer, just as he’d promised. But this wasn’t a violation. He was staking his claim over me, branding me with his ruthless touch. He was ensuring that I would always know who I belonged to, and he would always know that I belonged to him.
His angry, frustrated growls dropped to the low, primally satisfied hum that indicated his pleasure with me. As I submitted to his torment with wild abandon, the barrier of rage he’d slammed between us dropped away. He felt my surrender in a deeper, more innate part of his brain than my words could reach, and his anguish was soothed by my eager acceptance of his harsh claim.
